How Moody’s Analytics Increased Course Completion by 155%

With a portfolio of financial risk solutions that support companies in navigating business challenges, Moody’s Analytics understands how important onboarding and enablement are to organizational success. To effectively prepare and empower new sales staff for their selling journey, the company recognized the need to streamline how it delivered these programs to reps. Through the company’s partnership with Highspot, the enablement team was able to centralize this foundational knowledge and streamline the onboarding experience, boosting course enrollment by 94% and alleviating a huge burden for managers.

Unstructured Onboarding Puts Pressure on Managers

Historically, the program for new hires at Moody’s Analytics was unstructured and very lean, supporting general onboarding but not formal role-based paths. This put more pressure on managers to develop their own onboarding, taking time away from more meaningful projects. Meanwhile, content was spread across multiple SharePoint sites, making it difficult for reps to find what they needed and for the enablement team to maintain governance. “It’s crucial for us to make sure that we were developing a very robust onboarding program for our new sales hires,” explained Sarah Mitchell, senior training operations manager at Moody’s Analytics. “We owe it to them. They’re coming into the company, and we need to make sure they’re prepared for their selling journey.”

As the company began to grow rapidly due to a series of acquisitions, the need for more robust enablement and onboarding became even more apparent. This rapid growth was critical in helping senior leadership acknowledge the importance of sales enablement, and with this increased recognition came the understanding that their existing sales tech stack was no longer sufficient.

Unified Enablement Accelerates Learning

To create a centralized, consistent home for enablement programs, Moody’s Analytics invested in Highspot. Immediately, the enablement team got to work setting up a six-week seller onboarding bootcamp in the platform. By pairing e-learning courses in Highspot with live sessions and manager coaching, the program ensures new hires gain the same essential knowledge while also providing space to learn on the job and refine skills through feedback. In just the first six months, 180 sellers were successfully onboarded through the program. “I would say it’s rolling pretty smoothly,” said Rosalie Cutugno, global head of sales enablement and sales onboarding at Moody’s.

Beyond onboarding, the team built out robust courses in Highspot to provide ongoing training and certify reps to validate their knowledge and skills. For example, a key initiative for the team was to create a reboarding program for existing sellers called “Investing Yourself: A Moody’s Story.” Additionally, the team created certification courses and Sales Plays to help sellers land key messaging. “This learning program allows [sellers] to get certified in the company they work for and the industry they’re selling to,” explained Mitchell. “We also have elevator pitches that we have certifications for, and we’re using Sales Plays to enable sellers in their [sales methodology] messaging.” With a more accessible and inclusive learning environment for both new and existing sellers, Moody’s has increased course enrollment by 94% and improved course completion rates by more than 150%.

 Across all of these programs, a critical element of success is the ability to centralize content and learning in one place. Not only does it ensure consistency and control for enablement, it also streamlines the rep workflow so they have a single source of truth.

Engaging Experiences Directly at Seller’s Point of Need

Already, Highspot has become synonymous with content, training, and coaching at Moody’s. Content findability is up to 98%, and sales teams are increasingly confident that they can immediately find what they need when they go to Highspot.

In addition to the positive momentum with sellers, the team has also received exceptional feedback from sales managers and senior leaders globally. “[Sales managers and senior leaders] are so excited that we have an onboarding program for their new joiners,” noted Cutugno. “They feel confident and comfortable handing them over to us for six weeks knowing that they still have time to sit with them and coach them themselves.” Over the next year, the Moody’s team is eager to build on its early successes and continue to innovate through its partnership with Highspot. “We’re so excited as an enablement and onboarding team because we see the future,” explained Cutugno.